The relationship between cultural identity and the models of social behaviour, including criminal behaviour, appears to be obvious enough. On the other hand, however, the cultural determinants of criminal offences committed by foreign nationals in Poland has not been the subject of criminological research, whereas any insights into the cultural principles guiding their conduct when staying in Poland, were gained mainly within the framework of cultural studies. The present paper sets out to address this gap, even if only partially. It would appear that an important indicator of a proper functioning of a multicultural society, which offers a common space for the co-existence of a number of different communities, is the way those communities view the applicable law in place, criminal law in particular. The knowledge of which specific components of the identity of respective groups of immigrants (be that ethnic or religious) happen to be discordant, or even openly contradict the system of social values, as reflected in the legal system in place in Poland, may also be construed as the answer to the question which specific types of behaviours and cultural factors that actually determine them, will have to be faced fairly soon by the statutory bodies dealing with the legal cases in which the suspects, or indicted persons (as well as the victims and eyewitnesses) are foreign nationals representing respective minorities. In practical terms, the most essential seems to be the question how respective individuals shape their behavioural response when faced with the need to live in an everyday reality of conflicting axiological systems? Which standards, in a situation where they cannot be simply reconciled, i.e. the communities from which they originate or the social majority they live in, would they deem valid in axiological terms, and therefore binding for themselves? One of the possible directions of research in this area consists in seeking to identify the factors or circumstances that determine an individual’s choice when faced with just such a conflict of standards. It is therefore essential to determine those factors that make a foreign national comply with the law in place (despite various consequences arising from breaching the standards upheld within a group), as well as those whose coming into play would make a foreigner break the law in order to remain true to the standards within his group (despite the legal sanctions he stands to face for making such a choice). Such considerations are actually meant to seek out the answers about individual conformity and nonconformity when faced with a conflict of values in a multicultural society. The conclusions to be drawn are all the more important that the conflict of values and the underlying standards appears to be an integral part of a multicultural society. The paper consists of two parts. The first, theoretical one, comprises reflections on the concept of multiculturalism at large, offering a presentation of selected criminology theories based on the assumption that a society is made up of various groups representing different axiological systems around which various normative systems are duly constructed, with this heterogeneity lying at the source of any deviations, and also, whilst recognizing that conflict remains very much an integral part of an axiologically multicultural society (actual multiculturalism), conflict is addressed as a phenomenon, in due consideration of the concept proposed by T. Sellin, on two levels, i.e. the external one (i.e. when the standards governing a desirable behaviour of each group, minorities and a social majority, are found conflicting), and the internal one (i.e. an individually experienced dilemma whereupon in a situation of conflict, an individual must decide which standards to abide by). The author proposes that an internal conflict be construed in a slightly modified way, i.e. as a situation where an individual is trying to determine which standard, that applicable within his own group, or the country’s s/he happens to be living in, in view of: a) the fact that both groups and their values are essential to him/her (conflict of beliefs), b) the fact that s/he wants to respect both groups and their values ( conflict between discrepant legal norms), c) fear of the potential consequences of breaking the standards in place in each of these groups (conflict of consequences – the risk of having to face the negative consequences, or suffer the loss of benefits of compliance). The second part is an empirical attempt to characterize the likely behavioural paradigms of foreign nationals representing different cultural principles when faced with a conflict of values and standards applicable in both social settings, i.e. in the society they originate from, and in the Polish society into which they migrated (external conflict). It seemed of particular significance to identify the specific factors that may affect the choice made by an individual in such a conflict situation, i.e. what would make him/her choose to break the norm applicable within his/her own group (group standard), which s/he has so far complied with, or rather break the social norms in place in the country in which s/he currently resides. Here the actual attitude of the individual to the two conflicting standards, i.e. the presence or absence of internal conflict, proved to be of key importance. Given the extent to which the values and norms instilled in people in the process of socialization may impact their behaviours and individual choices, it was assumed that as far as the principle is concerned, people in conflict situations would be true to the values in which they had been brought up, instead of the values they did not identify with, new and culturally alien to them. It is therefore all the more essential to identify the possible factors that actually influence individual choices, so that an individual would rather breach the normative standard applicable within his own group, and abide by the standards upheld by the country s/he came to. An additional benefit of the study consisted in gaining an insight as to which specific situations within a cultural group under study might spark off an external conflict (at the level of normative standards beyond the domain of individual will). In practical terms, a sample image of cultural norms applicable within a group of foreign nationals under study was obtained, of norms that remain in conflict with the social principles in place in Poland (occasionally including legal constraints). All these data are essential as the differences in the shared values, attendant normative standards and commonly accepted models of response to an infringement of a particular norm are a potential source of individual dilemmas in foreign nationals as to which standard they should actually abide by, i.e. the group one or the one applicable within social majority. They may thus provide a certain clue as to what actually look for when dealing with the members of a particular community, with a view to increasing the likelihood of an effective dialogue, achieving the intended results in mutual relations, and in the long term, persuading them to comply with the normative standards in place in Polish society. The research was conducted in three selected communities, i.e. Caucasian, Vietnamese and Nigerian ones, even though the present paper is based predominantly on the research results pertaining to groups about which the research surveys yielded the most information, i.e. foreign nationals originating from the Caucasus, with particular consideration of the Chechen nationality. The Chechen examples were occasionally supplemented with the statements made by Armenian and Georgian respondents.
